Archive for the 'Misc' Category

Everybody has opinions: I have them, you have them. And we are all told from the moment we open our eyes, that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Well, that’s horsepuckey, of course. We are not entitled to our opinions; we are entitled to our informed opinions. Without research, without background, without understanding, it’s nothing. It’s just bibble-babble. It’s like a fart in a wind tunnel, folks.

– Harlan Ellison

Every now and then I realize we don’t have good words for certain concepts or behaviours – but rarely does the chance present itself for the creation of a new word to fit that gap in the language.  But today is such a day! And so I proudly present several new words which you can start using immediately:

to stross (verb)

Etymology: From Charles Stross, writer, who dismissed the entirety of science fiction on television without ever having seen any of it.

1. To make sweeping judgements about a matter of which one has no knowledge whatsoever.
2. To defend said judgements by overgeneralizations and arguments that are either untrue or unrelated.
3. To dismiss works of fiction based on their use of poetic license in matters of physics or other aspects of science, esp. when said works are greatly admired by groups or individuals with considerably greater knowledge of physics or science than the strosser.

Examples:

1. “It was clear that Bloom had never read one of King’s novels, so he was just strossing.”
2. “His arguments were so unrelated to actual fact that after a while we came to the conclusion that he hadn’t even bothered to read the Wikipedia entry on the subject, and was actually strossing.”
3. “He strossed Babylon 5, but the people at NASA were huge fans.”

strossian (adjective)

Etymology: see stross (v.)

1. Having properties that indicate strossing behaviour.

Example:

1. “This kind of strossian dismissal of an entire artform can only lead to a suffocation of art and creativity.”

strosser (noun)

Etymology: see stross (v.)

1. One who strosses regularly.
2. One currently engaged in strossing behaviour.

Example:

1. “He says he hates it with a passion and then it turns out he’s never even seen a single episode of it. And he thinks all those other shows are exactly the same, too. He’s a real strosser, I’m telling you.”

I hope you can see the wonderful potential of these words. And the beauty of language is that it can always be expanded: strossful, strosslike, unstrossing, etc. The possibilities are limitless!

Update: It has been pointed out that “to stross” is potentially more elegant if it can also be used with an object, so the third example has been modified. Do feel free to use the word in other forms as well, though: we do not subscribe to a prescriptive understanding of grammar (or dictionaries).